1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to performance monitoring of computers, and more particularly, to a system and method for performance monitoring and repair of various operating conditions for computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an effort to keep computers, such as personal computers (PCs), operating at peak performance and to resolve system problems, users normally need to take time away from their work and run utility software to diagnose and improve machine performance. Normally, this process takes place manually whenever the computer appears to be suffering from performance loss, faulty settings, or unexpected errors. Initially, users often run this type of utility software manually whenever the computer performance seems slow. Then, typically, users create a proactive policy to perform a system scan once a month, or once a week.
Some computer utility software manufacturers have attempted to automate the computer maintenance process by allowing users to set up specific scheduled operations that take place automatically at certain intervals, such as once a week, or every few days. However, there are several problems with this approach:                First, the maintenance and repair operations take place at their scheduled times whether or not they are actually needed or will result in any perceptible benefit.        Second, because the operations only take place on a set interval, problems that occur in between these intervals will exist until the next scheduled maintenance action takes place, which could be days or weeks later.        Third, the scheduled operations take place whether or not the computer is being used to perform other tasks at the scheduled maintenance time. Due to their intensive CPU requirements, however, this can interrupt or dramatically slow down the system, especially when the user is performing other work on the computer.Ideally, computer users expect peak performance at all times, without the need to perform manual intervention or monitoring of the computer performance, and without the annoyance of periodic scheduled maintenance, which could interfere with normal user tasks.        